Coincident Linestage vs CJ CT5 or Allnic L-3000

I can't wait for you guys to try them out. I have an Aussie friend In Guangzhou who will be getting 2 more pairs for CSLS owners in Perth, Western Australia ( the CSLS is catching on over here). Apparently the next batch of tubes will be completed by the end of February.

It sounds like Israel might offer the WE replicas as an option on the CSLS. Cool.
BTW, don't forget that these tubes definitely need running in. It was around the 70 hour mark that the magic started to appear and they improved further after that.

Hi Charles,

Yes that is me. The Soulution 710 was on loan from a friend and we did get to compare the CSLS to the Soulution 720 preamplifier a couple of weeks ago in his system in the presence of a group of hifi tragics like myself.

Of the people who were present most preferred the CSLS. They thought it was more organic sounding with a bigger sound stage and the sound was more natural overall. This was with the new WE 1:1 Replica tubes however!

The Soulution's owner preferred the Soulution citing better bass and dynamics. The $40k Soulution being an all out assault on high end pre-amps was always going to do something better. But the CSLS was certainly no slouch in those areas and I thought the dynamics and bass were very close.

The CSLS actually mates very well with SS power amps due to its speed. Although it is quite neutral it does add a natural timbre ( and a touch of warmth) to the sound compared to many SS preamps which can sound a bit dry by comparison.

Hi Pap,
That's the thing with high caliber SS preamps even the ultra expensive ones like the Soulution, they just cannot provide the same level of natural sound and organic liveliness. As far as I'm concerned the CSL has exceptional bass and speed as you said but always presented in the context of "natural", that is the key word. 3 dimensional space and image body-density is another strength of the higher quality tube preamps. Flesh and blood presence is more fully developed in my opinion. That the W.E. 101D replica will extend this inherent CSL attribute further is quite a feat.
Charles,

Charles - how many hours did you run the Psvanes before serious listening? What were your very initial thoughts? I'm hearing some brightness and a little less lower mid warmth at 24 hours.
Thanks,
Jordan

Jordan, I know your question was directed at Charles, but permit me to offer my observations during burn in. Straight out of the box, the PSVanes were actually somewhat similar to the Shuguangs. I did notice more air, which I suppose could present as brightness in some systems but did not in mine. At about 40 hours, the tubes began to sweeten up nicely and present with a nice improvement in midrange over the Shuguangs. At maybe 100 hours, I began to notice the system was offering much more mid-low bass authority, so that I was inclined to tweak my sub down a couple of notches.

My first reaction to the tubes was rather ho-hum, ok nice tubes, slight improvement over the Shuguangs, but nothing special. Be patient. These tubes really do need some hours.